


Letters

by blessedharlot



Category: The Great Library Series - Rachel Caine
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Random & Short, mid Paper and Fire, plot filler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 03:51:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18229523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blessedharlot/pseuds/blessedharlot
Summary: At a critical instant in "Paper and Fire", Santi calls Wolfe to his side in Rome very quickly, through means our narrator Jess isn't filled in on.We readers don't really need details; it's easy to believe two such resourceful men managed it. But the moment still made me wonder what coded letters might look like between them... how they'd speak doubly about the events that had just occurred - Thomas' whereabouts, the conversation Santi had with the students in the garden where they all made their decision, the details of Wolfe's impeding travel. The cover of them bickering with each other affectionately.This is the terse exchange that communicated what they needed to know that day.





	Letters

**Author's Note:**

> Consider that Christopher Wolfe MAY have been annoyed enough by his students and his teaching position to complain to Niccolo Santi. Perhaps frequently. Perhaps by the end of the postulancy course, they both adopted Wolfe's habit of referring to the students privately as pigeons - a useless and demanding flock of noise and mess (or so Wolfe complained).
> 
> Additionally, consider that a handful of words might be established between them to mean "come to my location immediately," one of those code words being "sonnet."
> 
> Past that, there may be meaning we decoders are not yet privy to.

**Codex message from Niccolo Santi on assignment in Rome to Christopher Wolfe in Alexandria.**

_Christopher,_

_Work is much the same as usual. Important persons are in capable hands, as expected._

_I had somehow entirely forgotten how daring and bold the pigeons are in Rome. Clear-eyed and ardent, willing to take bold leaps of faith into thin air. It’s astonishing. A kit of them like to sweep me off my feet tonight. Im beginning to think I should encourage cowering soldiers everywhere to pray to some as-yet-uncreated pigeon god for the strength to be bolder and braver. We should all try it and see if it works._

_Not much time for leisure here, but I do have a slim hope to at least walk by the sonnet collection in the Basilica in between duties… though I deeply fear you’ve already converted me to your own (inferior) poetry preferences._

_Please look after your health. I need you in one piece._

_All my love, Nic_

 

**Response from Christopher Wolfe to Niccolo Santi.**

_Nic,_

_I admit freely, I’ll never give up my pursuit to improve your taste in poetry. I’ll review the more sophisticated marks of quality with you when we next have shared leisure time, if you like. I’ll give you a hint: none of the hallmarks of great poetry are as overly dramatic and coarsely demonstrative as the entire Italian language._

_Stop fussing over me as well, it’s not worth it. I told you, I can’t be bothered. Though I have at least started the steam baths that are supposed to be so good for my constitution, etc etc. I suppose they’ll help. Soon, I hope. I’m not a patient man, as you well know._

_It’s possible I’ve not adequately prepared you for my childhood premonitions that my lover would be carried off by ardent pigeons one day. Except that, wait, my memory failed me just then. I believe I just discussed this exact subject with you before you left. You should have considered yourself forewarned._

_Take care, Chris_

 

 


End file.
